Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – Despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's flagging popularity, his Democrats remain the party to beat, in part because of a lack of viable alternatives, according to recent surveys.

If a national election had been held last month, the Democratic Party would have won with 27 percent of the vote, six percentage points more than what the party managed in winning elections in 2009, according to a survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute. The survey involved 1,829 respondents and was released this month.

While survey respondents had doubts about a viable alternative to Yudhoyono, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) appears to be benefitting from the president's troubles.

The LSI, which has done work for Golkar and other parties in the past, said its survey found that Yudhoyono's popularity had dropped to 66 percent in August from 85 percent shortly after he was re-elected to a second five-year term a year ago.

"This shows that there is a great dilemma among the public that while SBY's performance is seen as deteriorating, there is also a lack of an alternative figure who could bring new hope to the country," said Burhanuddin Muhtadi, an LSI analyst.

Separately, a survey by Indo Barometer, which has also worked with political parties in the past, found that if a presidential election had been held in August, 35.1 percent of the electorate would have voted for the incumbent. The survey involved 1,200 respondents.

Megawati came in a distant second with 13.6 percent, and retired Army general Prabowo Subianto, from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), came in third with 4.5 percent.

Even though Megawati fared poorly in the limited survey, her party was seen making inroads elsewhere.

The survey found that the PDI-P was making strides in the eyes of voters, with its popularity rising from 9 percent to 15 percent since April this year. The party won 13 percent of the vote in the 2009 legislative elections.

The LSI survey, which did not offer figures for former client Golkar, found the Democrats' popularity had fallen from 32 percent to 27 percent since January.

Burhanuddin said there was a correlation between the PDI-P's gains and Yudhoyono's declining approval rating. He said that as long as people remained disappointed in the performance of the government, particularly on populist issues, the opposition PDI-P would continue to gain.

The LSI survey also showed that 77 percent of the respondents thought the government had failed to properly handle a spate of explosions involving liquefied petroleum gas canisters, while 66 percent objected to the government's decision to increase electricity rates.

"This is natural. When the government's performance is seen as bad, the opposition automatically gets the credit," Burhanuddin said.

However, he said the PDI-P's failure to break the 15 percent approval rating pointed to a public that did not believe the party had a leader who matched up well with Yudhoyono. "Their leaders are the same old faces," he said.